PARIVARTAN - Sahaara’s project in the red-light communities of Turbhe and Bhiwandi

During this COVID-19 pandemic with many job losses and economic slowdown, a decent and sustainable livelihood for many have become a challenge. During this pandemic, red-light areas have emerged as the most severely impacted communities. With no-trade and no source of alternate livelihood thousands of Commercial Sex Workers are in desperate attempt to sustain themselves and their families.

While these sex-workers also constitute to the large population of daily wage-earners, who have been battling the economic uncertainty and survival for themselves and their families. The plight of sex workers and their families are less heard of due to the stigma attached to their profession.

Sahaara is committed in helping these victims of trafficking to experience freedom from various vicious cycles implanted to keep the women entrapped in the slavery cycle. Sahaara believes that along with the immediate interventions like providing food kits and hygiene products to these victims, it is important to invest in their empowerment and capacity building. Through these initiatives these women will have access to decent and sustainable employments that will keep them safe from the clutches of poverty.

Opportunities of decent and sustainable employment is the key factor in the empowerment of the victims of trafficking. This not only allows them to provide a safe and sustainable future for their children, but also allows them their basic human rights and the freedom to exercise choice, which is often lost in the sex trade.

Sahaara believes a vocational-cum-production center for these victims is the need of the hour. For this reason, Sahaara aims at operating this center where the women will be involved in training in mask making, bags, jewellery, and scarves production. And will be able to harness their skills to produce these items for sale and earn a decent living through it.

Through this model, the women will not only physically relocate from the red-light area and earn a decent living but will have opportunity to expand their skills into a small-business opportunity thereby being a source of job creation for others too. During this training period, these beneficiaries will receive support with housing facilities via provision of rent and grocery support to help in their relocation from the red-light area until they are financially stable enough to provide for themselves and their families.

Through this intervention, the Commercial Sex Workers will be unplugged from a setting that is brimming with violence and constant physical, emotional and verbal abuse. They will have access to a healthier atmosphere that initiates more control over their own situations like their finances, right to their own body, and are free from the risk of STDs and many other communicable diseases and experience psycho-social healing.

This opportunity of decent livelihood will not only allow them to be empowered, but also become an inspiration to many other women in their community to become free of the abusive trade.